Lunafest film series returns to West County

West Contra Costa residents will get two chances again this year to attend Lunafest, a mobile film festival to benefit women's causes that comes to more

than 150 communities in the United States each year.

This year's program of nine short films includes a documentary about a basketball team of women in their 70s from North Carolina who compete in senior tournaments around the county.

Another film profiles the San Francisco Women's Collective, a group of Mexican immigrants who do work in exchange for help in obtaining rights for domestic laborers.

Other films this year come from New York, the Netherlands, Norway, Greece and Australia. All the films are by women and about women.

Lunafest was established in 2000 by LUNA, a nutrition bar for women made by Emeryville-based Clif Bar & Co. The Lunafest in Richmond on Friday is sponsored by the Berkeley/North Bay Chapter of Zonta International, a service group for professional women founded in 1919. The Saturday, March 8 event in El Cerrito will be presented by Lunafest East Bay and the El Cerrito High School Information Technology Academy.

The Richmond showing will be the third annual Lunafest sponsored by Zonta International and the second in a row in Richmond after an initial show in Berkeley, said Susan Fischer, Zonta's ambassador for Northern California. Last's year's Lunafest raised about $4,000.

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Most of the money raised through the showing will go to the H.E.A.T. Watch Program, which works to prevent human trafficking in Alameda County.

"H.E.A.T Watch is a collaboration between nonprofit and public service agencies to help women under 21 in prostitution, identifying them as victims of human trafficking," Fischer said. "(We believe) anyone under 21 who is in prostitution is being forced into it."

This will be the seventh annual El Cerrito Lunafest and the fourth at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Center, according to spokeswoman Anja Hakoshima.

Sixty percent of the amount raised through the showing will go to the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund, dedicated to eliminating the environmental causes of breast cancer; 20 percent to the high school information technology academy; and 20 percent to the El Cerrito Community Foundation, Hakoshima said.

"Our committee has about a dozen women on it, and several have had breast cancer or have a loved one who has it," she said.

Tickets to the Richmond event are $25 in advance, $30 at the door and $20 for students with ID. Advance tickets are available at www.lunafest.org/richmond.

A reception with no-host bar will precede the showing at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets for the El Cerrito Lunafest are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and $50 for a VIP reception along with the film screening. Advance tickets can be purchased at eclunafest2014.eventbrite.com or by calling 510-524-9468.

If You Go
What: Lunafest -- Richmond
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Craneway Pavilion, 1414 Harbor Way South
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the door and $20 for students with ID. Advance tickets are available at www.lunafest.org/richmond.

If You Go
What: Lunafest -- El Cerrito
When: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 8
Where: El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Center, 540 Ashbury Ave.
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door and $50 for a VIP reception along with the film screening. Advance tickets can be purchased at eclunafest2014.eventbrite.com or by calling 510-524-9468.